Kenya’s BitPesa Partners with SBI Remit for Cross-Border Blockchain Transactions
Sep 25, 2018, 3:59PM
Kenyan company BitPesa will be working together with Japan’s SBI Remit to make cross-border blockchain remittances cheaper and faster.
Kenyan blockchain company BitPesa is set to collaborate with Japanese financial services company SBI Group to enable seamless cross-border transactions between Africa and the rest of the world. While SBI Remit has already specialized in traditional remittance for the past few years, this will be the first time it will be using blockchain to transfer money into Africa.
BitPesa is a digital treasury management solution that managed to raise $10 million from Greycroft Partners and other venture capitalists to create a payment solution for African countries. The current remittance system from Japan to Africa involves converting Yen into U.S. Dollars, Euros, or another G20 currency and then again into the respective country’s currency. These added steps not only increase the amount of time required but also increase the transfer cost significantly.
SBI Remit director Nobuo Ando spoke about the issue as well.
Many companies are doing trade with African countries and they are suffering from the high cost and the slow speed and not very precise administration...So this is the market that we would like to go in, together with Bitpesa.
BitPesa’s solution creates new currency pairs between the Japanese Yen and the currencies of Ghana, Morocco, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
BitPesa’s solution is designed to reduce the risk of volatility while dealing with digital currencies. Founder Elizabeth Rossiello said,
If it makes sense for us to settle using cryptocurrency or fiat currencies, then we do. And in this case, we’re happy that SBI feels the same way, so we’re open to using digital or fiat currencies to settle between us.
Disclaimer: information contained herein is provided without considering your personal circumstances, therefore should not be construed as financial advice, investment recommendation or an offer of, or solicitation for, any transactions in cryptocurrencies.
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